When You're Gone
by padfoot's prose
Summary: Troyella songfic to Avril Lavigne's When You're Gone. Gabriella takes Troy to her childhood home, and the memories become a bit overwhelming. Very fluffy and is probably a tear-jerker.


**Disclaimer- I so badly wish that i owned this song, i love it so much, but i don't. I also love these charaters heaps and think it'd be great if i ownded them and could make them do stuff, cos if i did ther'ed act way like real teenagers, and HSM's rating would have to change to M, or at least PG...**

**anyway, i don't own the characters, or the song, or the book that i mention which is based on a picture book that i dont knwo the name of, i think it's called Belonging, if you know the name could you please tell me cause i feel bad not being able to mention it properly.**

**Songfic, Troyella, complete fluff, please enjoy...**

Gabriella gripped Troy's hand as they stood in front of the big house. It was a bright an sunny day, but unhappiness seemed to leak from the house's dark walls and curtained windows.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Troy asked carefully, looking seriously down at his girlfriend. She paused for a moment, looking at him, her eyes seeming glazed and without their usual sparkle. She nodded and looked away, back at the old house before them.

"I can do this," she said more to herself than Troy, who was still looking at her concernedly. She glanced at him again and forced a brave smiled onto her face. "C'mon." She squeezed his hand and started towards the house, slowing with every step nearer that she took.

"I can do this." She repeated, again mostly to herself, and Troy squeezed her hand again for reassurance. They reached the front porch, where Gabriela stopped completely, staring at the huge house. Troy watched her, waiting for her eyes to show her decision.

"Are we going any further?" he asked after a while. Gabriella nodded but here eyes had begun filling with tears and she made no sign that she was going to move. Troy sighed and turned away, pulling her back to the car.

"No!" he heard Gabriella strangled voice behind him and turned back, hastily moving his hand to her cheek and brushing away the tears that were dripping down her cheeks. "I'm not leaving, not again, not this time. We can't keep going this far and then going back, I need to do this!" her voice was still strangled but her tone was defiant. "I can do this!" She repeated, a spark appearing in her dark eyes.

Troy turned back toward the house, letting his hand fall from her cheek. He nodded and stepped onto the porch, closing his eyes as he felt Gabriella pause, then step up beside him. Together, they walked slowly to the old, wooden door, and, glancing at his girlfriend again, Troy pushed it open. A smell of rotting wood and old furniture greeted the couple as they stepped over the threshold into the dark house, barely lit by the speckles of sunlight peppering the walls, creeping in through the many holes in the curtains.

_**I always needed time on my own **_

_**And never thought I'd **_

_**Need you there when I cry**_

Gabriella stared around the house in wonder. As if in a trance, she release Troy's hand and ran up the stairs across the room. She tore down the hallway, stopping abruptly at the end and staring into the room her eyes full of sorrow. Troy followed slowly, and stood behind her, staring into the room as well.

_**And the days feel like years when I'm alone**_

_**And the bed where you lie**_

_**Is made up on your side**_

Gabriella felt her eyes prickle as she slowly walked into the room, memories flashed through her mind of her as a young girl, creeping into the room at night so that she could sleep with her parents. She crouched down next to the old bed, still sitting in the middle of he room. Its mattress still had the remains of sheets on it, but they were covered in dust and looked as if they hadn't been used in years. Gabriella lay her head on the ancient looking bed and didn't even feel Troy kneeling beside her.

_**When you walk away**_

_**I count the steps that you take**_

_**Do you see how much I need you right now?**_

Gabriella felt the first of her tears begin to fall from her eyes, she felt comforting arms around her waist and turned away form the bed to cry into Troy's shoulder, almost thinking that he was someone else entirely. Troy stroked her soft hair slowly, and lay his head on hers, unable to think of anything comforting to say.

_**When you're gone**_

_**The pieces of my heart are missing you**_

_**When you're gone**_

_**The face I came to know is missing too**_

_**When you're gone**_

_**The words I need to hear, to always get me through the day**_

_**And make it okay**_

_**I miss you…**_

Gabriella opened her eyes and saw the open door across the room. She slowly stood and walked through it.

_**I've never felt this way before**_

_**Everything that I do**_

_**Reminds me of you**_

She wiped the tears out of her eyes as she stared around the smaller room. There was a little bed in one corner, under a small window. She let out a soft cry and ran towards a roughly made wooden chest, throwing open the lid and dissolving in tears again when she saw its contents.

_**And the clothes you left they lie on the floor**_

_**And they smell just you**_

_**I love the things that you do**_

Troy watched as Gabriella ran towards the chest and fell beside it, throwing the lid open. He wen to her when he saw fresh tears cascade down her face, clearing the dust on the floor in front of her to show rich wooden floorboards. He stood behind her and looked over her shoulder into the chest. It was filled to the brim with toys and books of all shapes and sizes. Gabriella reached in and tenderly picked up a small, faded book. She opened it carefully and flicked through the faded pages until she stopped on a blank one at the end. Squinting at the page, Troy could just make out a short message, written in untidy scrawl in the corner of the page.

_**When you walk away**_

_**I count the steps that you take**_

_**Do you see how much I need you right now?**_

Gabriella read the shirt message and brought the book closer to her. She traced around the message with her little finger, pushing away the dust on a thing line drawn around the message in equally faded ink. The line joined itself and formed a perfect heart, with the message right in the centre. Gabriella choked on more tears and stood soundlessly. She held the small book to her chest, pushing the drawn heart to her own and held back a new wave of tears as she quickly exited the room.

_**When you're gone**_

_**The pieces of my heart are missing you**_

_**When you're gone**_

_**The face I came to know is missing too**_

_**When you're gone**_

_**The words I need to hear, to always get me through the day**_

_**And make it okay**_

_**I miss you…**_

Troy followed Gabriella down the rickety stairs again, and into a small kitchen. Gabriella paused there, softly touching the bench, then continued through the house, Troy just behind her. They stopped in large open room, full of mismatched couches all strewn with cushions. Troy looked at his girlfriend, walking slowly towards a set of long curtains. Both of them gasped as she threw the curtains open in one movement and sunlight streamed through the house.

_**We were made for each other**_

_**Out here forever**_

_**I know we were (yeah yeah)**_

Gabriella collapsed onto the ground as the large backyard was revealed. The once flower-filled garden was nor a tangle of weeds and moss, and a rusty hoop still stood as a reminder of the once existent basketball court. She felt a hand on her back, and blindly held it, feeling as if it was the only thing keeping her alive and away from her grief. Troy let himself be pulled down to sit next to Gabriella, an wrapped an arm around her shoulders and the other being held tight by hers.

_**And all I ever wanted for you to know**_

_**Everything I do I give my heart and soul**_

_**I can hardly breath I need to feel you here with me (yeah)**_

Gabriella let the tears run from her eyes onto her lap as the familiar feel of her old living room filled her. She shuddered as she remembered worried nights spent sitting in this spot, waiting for her parents to stop arguing and wondering whether or not she dared to run away to the park just beyond the yard. She remembered watching her father shot hoops after a long day's work, wishing that she was as good as him. She remembered their dog, and her tears cleared for long enough for her to see the little headstone that they'd buried his favourite toy under after he'd died.

_**When you're gone**_

_**The pieces of my heart are missing you**_

_**When you're gone**_

_**The face I came to know is missing too**_

_**When you're gone**_

_**The words I need to hear, will always get me through the day**_

_**And make it okay**_

_**I miss you…**_

Gabriella stood slowly, holding onto Troy's hand for support. She forced open the stiff glass door that she was sitting at and walked outside into the large yard. Troy never released her hand or his grip around her shoulders as she weaved purposefully through the tangle of weeds and bits of pulled up concrete from the old basketball court. He started when he noticed a small row of headstones, each with soft curly, and faintly familiar writing on it.

He bent down with Gabriella and watched her move the hand still holding the book to her chest. They both examined each of the stones, Gabriella shivering at each familiar memory that they forced to resurface. Finally, their eyes fell upon the last stone, still bare and standing in front of an unstable bit of ground.

"Mum dug it, but we could never think of anything to put in it. Nothing ever seemed good enough for him." Gabriella murmured softly, and, glancing at her, Troy noticed that her tears had stopped. He looked into her eyes when she turned towards him, a sad smile on her beautiful face and her ebony curls falling untamed around it. He felt her other hand on his lap, and pulled away when he saw her place the small book there.

"No. Gabriella, I can't." He whispered.

"Read it." She answered, looking away and putting her free hand in her pocket, the other still clutching Troy's.

Troy took his arms off from around her shoulders, and felt her shiver at the loss of contact. He carefully opened the book, and turned to the last page. Although the ink had faded, the message still looked clear in the warm afternoon sun.

"_Dearest Gabriella, I know that you're a big girl now and you can read writing in books, but I saw this story and instantly thought of you. It made me think of how one day you're going to grow up and have a family, and by then you'll probably have left your mother and me to live with someone who you truly love. That's why I decided to give you this, so that you would always have something to remember your mother and me by, so you'd always know that no matter what happens we both love you more than anything else in the world._" Troy noticed faint lines through the last part of the sentence and glanced up at Gabriella for an explanation. But, when he saw her sad face, once again with tears scattered on it, he looked own again and continued reading.

"_I hope that when you're older you will show this to the people that you love, and maybe even make one for yourself, but, at least for now, here's one from me. With all of the Love in the world, Dad._" Troy lowered the book and looked back at Gabriella. Her face was still tear-stained, but her eyes had recovered their sparkle.

"Open it." Troy looked back at the boom and gingerly turned it over in his hands. The cover was so faded that he couldn't make out the title, but he opened it anyway and almost dropped it when he saw the first page. On one side was a picture from the book, it showed a mother and baby reflected in a window, cards scattered on the windowsill. On the other page, there was a picture of a baby in its mothers arms. The mother had short, dark hair and chocolate eyes, she looked like an older version of Gabriella.

"My mum… and me." Gabriella whispered. Troy turned the page and there were another two pictures. The one in the book was barely visible, but the other was of a dark haired toddler crawling between her parents. Troy smiled at the baby Gabriella, her short hair curling down around her face as it still did now.

The whole book was full of pictures of Gabriella and her family, but near the end there were three empty pages. Troy could just see the pictures form the book and saw that one had a 'Happy 18th' card on the windowsill, another had a 'Just Married' sign reflected off the window and the final one had a father and his baby.

"It isn't finished yet." He whispered and Gabriella shifted behind him.

"I know, but now I have something to come back here for." He turned to her and saw her holding a photo in her hand. She took the book from him and slipped he photo between the two sides of the page, so that it appeared in the gap left for one next to the 'Happy 18th'. He smiled as he saw the picture was of all of their friends smiling up at the camera, the two of them in the middle. Chad's arm was wrapped around Taylor's shoulders, Zeke and Sharpay were hugging and Jason and Kelsi were awkwardly holding hands. Gabriella was laughing as Troy lifted her off the ground, holding her tightly in his arms and laughing too.

"I'll come back here whenever I can add a picture." Gabriela said to both troy and herself. "And that way, it'll keep me from getting so upset, because I have to come." Troy smiled at her as she slipped the book into an airtight plastic bag and sealed it. She dug away some of the soil from in front of the blank headstone and placed the bag in the hole, hastily burying it again. She stood and turned back to the house, walking confidently back into it. She barely glanced around as the couple moved back through the living room and kitchen, closing all of the doors on the way. She avoided looking at the stairs and was almost running by the time she reached the door. Troy followed her out and quickly she shut the old wooden door, ignoring the bang that echoed along the empty street.

Troy led her off the balcony and together they stood next to his car, neither wanting to leave the other. Gabriella sighed, then leant into Troy's arms, resting her head against his chest. He pulled her closer and buried his head in the ebony curls cascading over her shoulder.

They stood together for a moment, then unanimously leant in the kiss. Their lips stayed glued in the soft kiss for longer than usual, and finally the need for air forced them to separate. Gabriella fell against Troy's chest again and breathed deeply, trying not to let more tears spill from her eyes. Troy rested his head on hers and took a deep breath, letting the faint smell of his girlfriend soothe him.

As Gabriella felt herself win the battle with her tears, she sobbed quietly as a single tear dropped down her cheek onto Troy's shirt and faintly whispered, "when you're gone…"

**I really wanted Gabriella to say that at the end and i couldn't think of another way to do it. Incase you didn't get it, that was supposed to be Gabriella's old house and her father died while she lived there, the thing about fighting parents was just cos thats what parents do... please R&R, first songfic, hope it was ok.**


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